Publication date: 19 Jun 2023
IDC: The June 18 shopping festival “618” can’t boost demand in sluggish market; consumers prefer discounted high quality products
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For more information, contact:- Frank Wang (frankwang) Email: frankwang@idc.com Phone number: +86-10-5889-1588 VOIP: 8610588
- Yvonne Liu (yvliu) Email: yvliu@idc.com Phone number: +86-10-5082 5797
- Maggie Xie (mxie) Email: mxie@idc.com Phone number: +86-10-5889-1558 VOIP: 8610558
Beijing, June 18th,2023——This year's 618 shopping festival, which lasted for several weeks until June 18, is the first since China ended its virus control policies and was highly anticipated to stimulate an increase in consumer spending. However, the actual sales between June 1 and June 7 in the smart devices market didn’t meet expectations. Consumers opted for high-quality products but were more price sensitive this year. We believe that both "high quality" and "high value" are increasingly necessary for consumers to make purchases. We also observed a wider range of 3C products being discounted online to increase their price competitiveness.
Consumer purchasing falls during shopping events this year and the 618 festival achieves lower overall demand than expected between June 1 and June 7
With the continued rise in the popularity of e-commerce platforms, we have seen more promotional events with longer durations, which has paralleled consumers' shopping habits.
An increasing number of consumers no longer choose to concentrate their spending on festivals such as 618 as they disperse their purchasing across a greater number of promotional events. Consumers have also widened the range of goods and services that they purchase online.
This is a key reason why the sales across the smart devices market has fallen short of expectations during 618.
High quality products also need to be "cheap", and the market performance in the first week of June was unsatisfactory.
Using IDC research data across the whole retail market (including e-commerce platforms, manufacturers’ official websites and offline traditional channels) for the first week of June 2023, we found that the sales volume changed year-on-year as follows:
PC market (notebook + desktop) decreased 13.0%;
Tablet market increased 5.0%;
Smartphone market decreased 6.5%;
Monitor market decreased 5.0%;
Smartwatch (excluding children's watches) market decreased 2.5%;
There has been an increase in the overall consumption level this year and consumers' pursuit of product quality has gradually increased. The desire for product quality has not been affected despite the economic outlook being viewed as pessimistic in the short term.
PC market: The proportion of gaming notebooks has increased significantly and now exceeds 50% during 618. MECHREVO (gaming series of Tongfang), HP and ASUS have greatly increased their market share in the gaming notebook market by virtue of their new 40-series graphics card products and price advantages.
Smartphone market: Lenovo Moto Razr 40 & 40 Ultra has been welcomed by consumers since its launch, with the most competitive price and large external display screen in the current folding screen smartphone market. It was the sales leader for folding screen phones for several days in the first week of June.
Tablet market: High-end product sales have also been driven by price cuts. Apple products are more involved in promotional activities during 618 this year, and price drops have driven demand.
Vacuuming Robots market: We have seen price drops below RMB 4,000 for some vacuuming robots with hands-free cleaning functions during 618, which stimulated users' enthusiasm for buying and accelerated upgrade purchases.
Platform subsidies are more common
More 3C products have been promoted this year with platform discounts to stimulate consumer demand.
Integrated marketing on e-commerce platforms allows promotions to continuously expand across product scope. Manufacturers should further cooperation with the platform to help stimulate purchases; Customers achieve better discounts by comparing across different platforms to buy their 3C products.
Analyst’s view:
IDC Net Promoter Score research has shown that both product performance and price continue to be important factors affecting consumer recommendations and recently we have seen increased levels of choice for a wider range of smart devices.
Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker
Worldwide Quarterly PC Monitor Tracker
Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker
Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker
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For enquiries, please contact:
Frank Wang
Vice President, IDC China
Phone: (+86-10) 5889 1588
Email: fwang@idc.com
Maggie Xie
Marketing, IDC China
Phone: (+86-10) 5889 1558
Email: mxie@idc.com
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